April 2012

I met Roselynd Laubhouet in 2004 when, as a recent graduate, she accepted an assignment as a Junior Professional Associate with the World Bank's Africa Region in Washington, D.C. From day one, it was evident that Roselynd was special. Being an entrepreneur at heart, she was filled with dreams, aspirations, and a passion for her home country of Senegal (and her continent) that set her apart.

When Roselynd and I reconnected in Abidjan last December, eight years after our first meeting, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that not only had she moved home to Senegal, but she had also started a successful international business. The journey from bureaucrat to entrepreneur was not easy, but it was clear that--having returned home--Roselynd was realizing her dreams.

I was curious to learn the secrets of her success, to understand the challenges facing returnees, and gather any advice for other Africans in the Diaspora considering a return. Roselynd was kind enough to share her experiences with me in the hopes that other young women in the Diaspora might be inspired to follow in her footsteps.

As a graduate student in Cambridge, Massachusetts living outside my home country Philippines for the first time, attending Boston Red Sox games at Fenway Park marked the beginning of my initiation into American life — and that most American of pastimes: baseball. Fenway Park (the country’s oldest ballpark) turned 100 years old last Friday (April 27, 2012). It is a wonderful icon of the enduring nature and magnetic power of cities.

Fenway Park (like the city of Boston) is small, expensive, and still has infrastructure from 1912. The bathrooms, parking, and other amenities don't always work (again, like many great cities). But overall, this urban gem is the best place to watch a baseball game — despite the 86-year drought in World Series championships.

“More and better jobs” is a goal for many policymakers around the world (along with part of the title for a recent World Bank South Asia flagship report on employment). How to create “good jobs” is a key question that the next World Development Report is also expected to help answer.

How can we stimulate entrepreneurship in the developing world? For TechnoServe — an international nonprofit that focuses on business solutions to poverty — this is more than just a theoretical question. We believe that competitive businesses are the key to ending global poverty. And growing such businesses begins with entrepreneurs.

Everyone in Egypt has a botagas story. If you walk the busy and pleasantly noisy Cairo streets, as I often do in the early evening during my visits, you pass scores of fast-food shops, cafés, and makeshift tea stands, their bluish botagas flames burning steadily in the fading light. I am sure their owners have many botagas stories to tell. Newspapers often run these stories as well, usually with a photo of a queue of people with mixed expressions – a few smiling faces leaving with heavy bottles and many more anxiously waiting to try their luck. My colleague Khaled tells his own story in the accompanying “botagas” blog and it also ends on an unhappy note: botagas is not easy to get nowadays. So, what is behind these unhappy botagas stories?

Everyone in Egypt has a botagas story. These botagas stories are not the result of just the current shortage of botagas and gasoline that Egypt is currently struggling with. Botagas is a lifeline for many Egyptians. To understand why botagas is so important to the lives of so many, let me begin by providing some context. Botagas is essentially a propane gas tank (probably a mixture of propane and butane), just like what you would purchase for your outdoor grill. Egyptians buy botagas for two reasons, to cook, and to heat up water in a household bathroom. If you don’t have botagas, the stove doesn’t work, and you can’t take a shower, unless you like cold water.

The American Economics Association announced today that the 2012 Johns Bates Clark medal (for the most significant work by an economist under age 40) winner is Amy Finkelstein of MIT, who has made important contributions to the study of health and insurance markets. The AEA summary of her work is here.